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At some point, we will start feeling how much text is missing in many places of The Zohar. Being the commentary on the Pentateuch (The Torah, The Prophets, and the Scriptures), The Zohar describes the whole of reality: HBD-HGT-NHY of the common soul, Malchut of the World of Infinity. But the original text was hidden from us and only a small part of it remained. Apparently, we don’t need more for our correction. The parts of The Zohar that are not relevant to our current correction most likely refer to the already corrected parts of the system.

For this reason, one can sense certain omissions and incompleteness in the text. Even though we may not be noticing it just yet, we will increasingly sense it more. We will also feel how beneficial these omissions are. The soul that strives for correction seeks perfection. Hence, the missing parts that the soul senses as if invite it to cling to the corrected souls which have corrected these parts. This is why we are missing them today.

This should make us understand that we exist within the living system of souls, where some parts complete the others. The missing parts of The Zohar invite us to join the souls that carry these missing revelations. If we unite with them, we will thus complete all souls.

A question I received: How can a person transgress at the very first stage of double concealment (as mentioned in Item 58,Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot)? At this point, he doesn’t really see spirituality; in order to transgress one has to be able to see what he is doing.

My Answer:Kabbalah says that you are a criminal from the start; you were born that way. We are all criminals! But we don’t need to be caught because we are already imprisoned by being in this world. All we can do is realize that we are jailed criminals and that such a state is given to us from the beginning. If someone wishes to leave the jail, he can go ahead, the door is open! However, in order to do so, one has to change himself.

Our transgressions and mistakes reveal to us how opposite we are to the Creator. If we don’t see them as such, there aren’t any transgressions or mistakes. This is the stage called the “Providence of reward and punishment.” Reward is the opportunity to act in bestowal. Punishment is the lack thereof.

Transgressions are the effect of double concealment; mistakes are the effect of single concealment. One concealment is over “There is none else but Him,” and the second one is over “He is good and does good.” If we err in both, it is called a transgression. If we err in one of them, it is a mistake.

Therefore, it is easier to correct the mistakes. In correcting a mistake, we correct half of a transgression, and it becomes easier to correct it in full because a transgression has now become a mistake. Essentially, we are always correcting mistakes since even transgressions first turn into mistakes and get truly corrected only when we begin to receive in order to bestow. This is what is called repentance from love rather than fear.

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 51: …It turns out that she is like a polished mirror, which is concerned not with showing her own form, but only with the form of others, those who look at her or those who stand in front of her.
She resembles a mirror also because the whole quality of the glass mirror is the murky color in its other side. It reflects the rays of light, for if it were transparent, no shape would be seen in it. So is the Nukva—all her strength is in the Masach in her, which detains the light from shining from her down. Without this Masach, there would have been no light in her at all.

We readThe Zohar but we don’t understand it; we read it but don’t feel anything. Ultimately we have to reach a state when the question “What is it all for?” will plunge us into despair, disillusionment, to an inner explosion and realization that we have no other choice but to unite, and in this inner unity, reveal what The Zohar speaks of.

There is no other method, no other path. We must overcome this barrier. There are many obstacles on our way: laziness, lack of understanding, and the mind’s protests due to its inability to comprehend. However, none of that matters. We only need persistence that brings us to a state of despair and the realization that there is no other choice. We must reveal what The Zohar speaks of precisely here in our unity. That which The Zohar describes is revealed only in the unity among us.

My Answer: How can you possibly check what level your teacher is and whether he is a Kabbalist or not? Who are you to examine this? What tools do you have and what tests can you perform?

Maybe you would test how well he knows theory and the Talmud Eser Sefirot? But everybody remembers Baal HaSulam’s story about the “kabbalists” whom he met in Jerusalem. They knew all the ARI’s books and the entire Book of Zohar by heart. If they heard the beginning of a sentence they could continue it to the end of a chapter.

Yet does it prove that they were Kabbalists and had attained spirituality? They were just a computer with good memory. Beside theoretical knowledge and the ability to present it skillfully, there seems to be no other criteria to be certain. How can you test this if you don’t have the appropriate tools?

Spirituality exists in the properties that you don’t possess yet and this makes you incapable of determining whether other people do have those spiritual properties or not. Besides, any Kabbalist can conceal himself as well. Even to another Kabbalist, another can “camouflage” himself to the extent that the other won’t recognize or sense anything.

That is why the only way to check someone is with one’s own heart. You should open your heart to yourself, never deceive yourself, and then see whether you are ready to follow this person without regret or self-coercion, and without fighting your doubts.

There might be some things that you don’t agree with, but you proceed anyway in order to give them a chance. You might not like his way of teaching or his behavior, but you are ready to check the principles he uses and why.

You are the one who has to investigate; no one else can do it instead of you. Who else can you trust? There is no difference between believing your teacher and trusting a person who tells you things about him. Whose word can you rely on? “To rely on someone” means to use “faith above reason" and trust that your teacher is in spirituality and knows what he is talking about.

That’s why only your heart can give you a hint. As it is said, “One should always learn where one’s heart desires.” It’s necessary to figure out exactly what your heart wants and then avoid other people’s opinions so that you can rely on your choice.